


The First Night

by Bothers_McWritey



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Insomnia, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-15 20:07:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29813718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bothers_McWritey/pseuds/Bothers_McWritey
Summary: Set while Adora and Catra are kids, growing up in the horde. Their first proper meeting.Adora can't sleep, and sneaks out for a night-time stroll, only to be followed by a very curious cat.
Relationships: Adora & Catra (She-Ra), Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 43





	The First Night

Adora lay awake in the darkness, staring at the foot of the bunk above her.

_ Swish _

Her eyes moved left. She had no idea what time it was. The other cadets had long since fallen asleep.

_ Swish _

Her eyes moved right. Adora wondered why she couldn’t just fall asleep like the others. Maybe she was faulty.

_ Swish _

Her eyes moved left. She felt the urge to get up and move, made worse by the constant motion from the bunk above.

_ Swish _

Her eyes moved right again. It wasn’t fair. At least the other cadets had to be still when they slept. But this new cadet gets to constantly move as well?

_ Swish _

Her eyes moved left again. ‘ _ Her tail is very pretty though _ ’, Adora thought.  _ ‘I wonder if it’s as soft as it looks?’ _ .

_ Swish _

Her eyes moved right. That was it. Adora  _ had _ to move. It’s not like she was getting much sleep anyway, with that tail  _ taunting _ her all night.

Quietly, Adora pushed her blanket to one side and crawled out of her bunk. Climbing to her feet, she tip-toed across the room before easing the door open, and disappearing into the night. She never noticed the mismatched eyes shining from the bunk above, tracking her across the room.

****

Catra lay awake in the darkness, staring at the ceiling. Sleeping on the top bunk was the  _ worst _ . She hated the feeling of having someone behind ( _ beneath? _ ) her, that there was no safe corner to back into. She didn’t understand why that Shadow Weaver person had moved her in here anyway. There was nothing wrong with her old ‘squad’,  _ and _ she’d had a nice, safe bottom bunk, tucked away in a dark corner. So there she lay, on edge, flicking her tail back and forth in a vain attempt to relieve some tension.

Suddenly her ears pricked up; the girl below her was moving. Catra’s fur stood on end as she silently repositioned herself, ready to pounce if needed. She watched as the girl climbed out from the bunk below, her blonde ponytail bobbing into view, and slowly stomped her way across the room. ‘ _ Is she trying to be quiet?’ _ , Catra thought as the girl opened the door and slipped through.  _ ‘I wonder where she’s going...’ _ .

Catra considered taking this opportunity to steal the girl’s bunk. Even if she did come back, Catra could probably scare her into taking the top bunk anyway. And it was always good to establish dominance as early as possible. In the end though, her curiosity won out. Dropping to the floor below, she ran to the door without a sound, and poked her out into the corridor beyond.

It was just as dark in the corridor as it was in their room. A kind of almost-blackness interrupted only by occasional status lights and terminal screens. Of course, for Catra it might as well have been the middle of the day. Looking around, she spotted her prey several meters down the corridor to her right, making an attempt to be stealthy and failing utterly.

_ CLANG _

_ ‘Apparently her night-vision wasn’t up to much either’ _ , Catra thought to herself as she watched the girl trip over a support strut, landing heavily on the cold metal floor. The girl picked herself up and looked around for guards, assuming she’d be caught. Luckily for her though, it seemed nobody was around.

‘ _ Well, no guards anyway’ _ . Catra slowly closed the door behind her, and set off down the corridor as her mysterious prey turned a corner. When she got to the junction, Catra peered round the corner to see the girl crouched down, looking into a vent.  _ ‘What’s so interesting about a vent?’ _ she asked herself, before the girl jumped up and continued down the corridor. Catra followed, stopping to have a look over the vent in question. Nothing, apparently.

***

Catra had been following this girl for what felt like forever, and she was beginning to think she’d made the wrong choice by not just taking her bunk. The blonde girl didn’t seem to be going anywhere in particular, walking aimlessly around the Fright Zone, stopping whenever she passed a vent, hatch, or garbage chute to inspect it. There was never anything interesting there, and she seemed to be getting visibly disappointed each time. As much as her curiosity demanded she find out what the girl was looking for, Catra was starting to get bored. The girl rounded another corner up ahead.  _ ‘One more corridor, and then I’m going back to bed’ _ , Catra thought as she rounded the junction. And then she froze.

At the end of the short corridor was a door, and this one she recognized: the Black Garnet chamber. The blonde girl stood motionless in front of it, staring at the door. Catra’s ears twitched as she picked up the faint sound of voices on the other side, and from experience she knew the girl wouldn’t be able to hear them. Her eyes widened as the girl took a step toward the door, reaching out for the handle. And then she heard footsteps coming towards the door from the other side.

***

Adora stood in front of the door to Shadow Weaver’s chambers, working up the courage to go inside. She was pretty certain it was empty at the moment; it was definitely quiet.  _ ‘I’ll only be a moment’, _ she thought, ‘ _ Shadow Weaver will never know’ _ . She took a step forward, and reached out for the door han-

An arm shot out of the darkness, and Adora was suddenly pulled to one side. She was dragged into the corner of the corridor, the arm pinning her behind a large strut, and a clawed, slightly furry hand clamped her mouth shut.

“Shut up”, her assailant hissed quietly in her ear. A moment later, the door swung open in front of them, spilling light into the corridor. A tall shadow stretched out of the open doorway, as Shadow Weaver stepped out of the room. She paused, and looked around, not seeing the two young cadets hidden in the shadows. After a brief moment she continued on, and as she rounded to corner her footsteps faded into the distance.

“Okay, I think she’s gone”, came the whisper from behind her, and as the hands holding her in place relaxed Adora pulled herself free and turned to face her attacker/saviour. She was startled to see the blue-and-yellow eyes of the new cadet staring back at her.

“What are you doing here?“, Adora demanded a little too loudly.

“Hey, keep it down! Unless you want to get caught by Shadow Weaver!”, Catra shout-whispered back, “And same as you I guess, couldn’t sleep.”

Adora opened her mouth to answer, but Catra cut her off. “Anyway, what are  _ you _ doing here? And why do you keep looking in the vents?”

Adora’s shoulder’s dropped, and she paused for a moment before answering. “I... I was looking for my parents” she whispered, looking down at the floor.

Catra looked at her, confused. “None of us  _ have _ parents. That’s why we live in the cadet block”.

“Shadow Weaver told me she found me abandoned in the Fright Zone. I thought if my parents had been here, maybe they’d left a clue or something I could use to find them.”, Adora replied, still looking at the floor.

“That’s stupid, everyone knows tha-”, Catra started to say, the words dying in her mouth as Adora looked up at her, tears in her eyes.

“I know. I know it’s stupid. I just thought tha-”, Adora responded, before stopping and looking at Catra again. “Wait. Were you following me?”

Catra looked away, and seeing the door next to them was reminded of where they were standing. “Uh, that’s not important.”

“Yes it i-”

“We should go before Shadow Weaver comes back.” Catra said, raising her voice slightly.

Adora followed her gaze to the door beside them, and nodded. They turned and headed down the corridor, back the way they came.

“So why couldn’t  _ you _ sleep?”, Adora asked as they snuck their way back to their dorm.

“What?”

“Earlier you said you couldn’t sleep. Why not?”

“Oh”. Catra didn’t want to show weakness in front of this strange new girl. After all, weakness lost you rations. But the blonde had been open with her, and for some reason Catra had a good feeling about her. “I uh... I don’t like sleeping on the top bunk.”

“Why?”

“It doesn’t feel s-”, Catra stopped herself. “It doesn’t matter why.”

“Well, if you want you could always sleep on my bunk”

Catra stopped and turned to face the girl. “Really?”, she asked, slightly incredulously.

“Of course! It’s not fair that you don’t get to sleep just because of your bed.”

Catra stared at the girl’s face, unsure of how to respond. No one had offered to do anything...  _ nice _ for her before. 

“I’m Adora by the way”, the girl said, sticking her hand out in front of her. Catra looked down at it suspiciously, before slowly reaching out and patting it aside.

“Catra.”

Adora smiled at her, and then turned to carry on down the corridor. And immediately tripped on another support strut.

_ CLANG _

“Why don’t you let  _ me _ lead the way”, Catra said, suppressing a laugh.

***

When they finally made it back to their barracks, Adora eased the door open and ‘snuck’ across to their bunks, climbing straight into hers. Catra stopped a few paces behind, surprised by how disappointed she felt. Before she could say anything, Adora looked at her, and patted the space on the mattress beside her.

  
“Come on, this bunk is more than big enough for the two of us”, Adora whispered to her.

Catra stared for a moment, once again unsure of how to respond. That was  _ definitely _ too close for her liking. She looked down and saw that Adora’s feet barely reached halfway down the bunk, so instead she moved to the foot of the bed, and curled up in a ball just below Adora. It wasn’t perfect, but at least it was better than the top bunk.

Catra closed her eyes and relaxed for the first time all night, purring softly as she drifted off to sleep.

“Good night Catra”, Adora’s voice was muffled from her face being buried in a pillow.

Catra paused.

“Good night Adora”, she sighed, as they both finally found some much needed rest.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first work I've posted, and I haven't done creative writing for a *long* time, so please tell me if/what I could improve.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed it.


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